Fallout: Goodwill
by Ibasitzu
Summary: Fallout: Goodwill follows the story of a Vault Dweller name Mary Cooper as she journeys across the wastes of post nuclear Seattle in search of a reverse pulse cleaner.
1. Exodus

Okay first an authors note. First off this story will be almost entirely OC's so don't expect to see characters from Fallout 1, 2, 3, NV, Tactics, or BOS. Second it's also an original place(Seattle.) Just a few warnings. Also last warning I'm not that much of a fan over the first chapter. It pretty much just introduces characters. If you read the description you should be fine except. Ok that's all I have to say, so I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1: Exodus

Three years... three years learning how to do the same job. All that time... and it was my first day. I woke up tired, as usual. I stretched, got up and went into my bathroom. I threw some water in my face, then did something that annoys me a good deal. I looked into the mirror. I don't know why, but this frustrates me to no end. What was I expecting. I looked like I was a fourteen year old girl when in reality I'm a sixteen year old girl. I know it's petty, but it's real frustrating.

Anyway I had brown hair that went down to my neck. I was slightly paler than most Vault 47 residents, that's because I tended to work in the lower levels where they didn't install the lights designed to simulate the sun. Instead we got fluorescent lights which made everything in low levels unnecessarily pale and depressing.

I then proceeded to put on my standard Vault 47 jumpsuit and lab coat. Then it took me five minutes to find my Pip-boy 2000. No not 3000 2000 there's a difference. 2000's are handhelds... and worse. Anyway I found it, and left.

I took my usual path until I reached the Atrium, from there I saw my thirteen year old brother and some of his dickhead friends leaning by the doorway to the hall that led to the school house. From there it became my goal to get past him without being noticed.

I got about half way across the Atrium before I heard." Hey sis!"

I sighed annoyed grumbled and continued walking. He wouldn't stop though

"Hey sis! Sis! Ah what's the matter sis now that you're working ya don't got time to talk?" He shouted.

"Yes in fact that is the case," I said putting on an obviously fake smile.

"What's wrong sis don't have time to yell at your kid brother" he said grinning like an idiot.

"Fine what do you want to talk about" I said through my teeth, "and don't call me 'sis' my names Mary"

"Whatever you say Mary" he said sarcastically.

"Don't you have better things to do like worry about taking your goat or something?" I muttered back.

"Why would I be worried 'bout that, it's a multiple choice quiz" he said before adding "with no wrong answers!"

"A multiple choice quiz with no wrong answers that will determine your future." I replied smirking before saying " maybe you'll get something you could be good at like trash burner. Bet you won't have to have three years training though."

"Hey shut up!" he said the adding on "You aren't even a qualified Engineer!"

Before I could reply I was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat

"Mr. Cooper shouldn't you be getting to class, and Ms. Cooper don't you have work to do?" said a tall thin boy about twenty three. He had light brown hair and brown eyes. His name was Jeff Young, he was the teachers assistant for this class, though one day he would just be the teacher. I nodded at him, and walked away scowling at my Bert (my brother).

I didn't face any more interruptions until I reached the the reactor level. When I got down there I was surprised to see Scott Moore the twenty one year old Junior Shift Manager for Vault 47 talking to the head Vault engineer Eric Williams.

"I'm telling you she is the best candidate" Said Scott.

"She hasn't even taken her final test though!" replied Mr. Williams.

"Well here she is why don't we ask her if she thinks she's prepared?" Said Scott

"Fine" said Mr. Williams. " Ms. Cooper, Mr. Moore here has informed me that he intends on sending a mission to the surface to find a reverse pulse cleaner, and he thinks you would be a good candidate to lead it." For a few seconds I stood there, speechless.

"You want me to go to the surface... alone." I said.

"Not alone you'll have a security escort." Said Scott he continued with "Mary I've checked the reports on you. You're good enough to find this part."

"Why don't you just send our best" I asked.

"They're needed to try to find a temporary solution." said Mr. Williams.

"So what do you say?" Said Scott. "You up for it Mary?"

"Sir I'm honored b-" I said before I was interrupted by.

"Excellent! You'll meet your team tomorrow." Said Scott happily. Mr. Williams and I just stood there for a bit after Mr. Scott left. I then walked over to a console overlooking the reactor and sat down.

"Go home" said Mr. Williams "I'll cover for your shift."

For the next week I would eat dinner with my whole family every night. I was still expected to go to work though which strikes me as kinda sorta bull crap. I mean considering the whole ya know... probable death thing. Still though I got to find out what Bert's job was, and it was... little league coach, so that was slightly disappointing.

So one week and about 150 release forms later it was time to leave. I sat silently in the Atrium. It was empty, though that was expected. No one likes talking to folks on death row. We can be quite depressing. It was at that moment that Christopher Young walked in it. He was the leader of my security escort. He was in his forties and had a fair amount of gray hair. He was wearing a security vest with a holstered pistol. He held his helmet loosely in his right helmet.

"Hey there Ms. Cooper" he said he sounded tired. "We leave in seven minutes."

"Hey there Officer Young" I replied grimly.

"You worried kid" he said sympathetically.

"I just can't help, but feel like I won't see this place again" I said. He nodded in response. I continued with " I just can't help, but feel that I'm unprepared. I mean you've all got pistols and shotguns why can't I have something. All I get to do is hold the fu- I mean the freaking Geiger counter."

"Let me ask you something Mary, Have you ever shot a gun." I shook my head and he continued "Have you ever even held a gun?" I shook my head again "That's why."

"Well it doesn't have to be a gun, but all they gave me was three canteens three Stim-packs and some Med-X." I replied.

"Well we're exploring an unknown land with minimal land and hardly any info... what could go wrong" said Officer Young grimly. Five minutes later we got up and walked through the door to the entrance. I saw a squad of five vault security officers with modified helmets that appeared to have a gas mask instead of the normal visor. They were all armed with a 10 millimeter pistol and baton. Two of them carried Combat Shotguns. It was then that Mr. Williams walked over to me.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked "It sounded like you were going to say you didn't want to when we first discussed this."

"No I want to go" I said. He probably would've retorted if the Overseer hadn't walked in.

He cleared his throat and began "Men... and woman... I'm not much for big speeches, but I'd like you to know we're all pulling for you back here. You are are best hope for survival. You go forth now not just for you, me or any others who live in Vault 47, but instead for your children and your children's children. You will no doubt see horrific things out there, but know that through it all you must have courage. You are our future, so go out there and give 'em hell." with that he left for a small room to the left with a window overlooking the exit.

I was handed a gas mask, one of those old models with the elephant-ish tube at the front. Officer Young walked over to a small control panel with a switch as well as several other buttons on it. I put the gas mask on. It's lenses were made of the polarized glass. The people in the small room to the left wore goggles.

Officer young pulled the lever. A loud screech could be heard as a large arm like thing came down. It attached itself to the back of the door to pull it onto a rail that then pulled it fully open directly to the outside. It was dark out. Not to mention very cloudy. I felt a steady tapping on the top of my head. When I looked the lenses of my gas mask were blurred by water droplets. The others kept walking, either they already knew about this or couldn't feel it through there helmets. With this thought I began to follow them.


	2. Elk

Chapter 2: Elk

It was cold, dark, damp and miserable. The path was muddy and... not really a path come to think of.

"Mr. Young" I said stumbling over a log before finishing with "where are we going?"

"There's a facility this way, used to be a park rangers cabin. It-" He responded

"You think there's going be an expensive piece of Vault Tec air purification technology in a park rangers outpost on-" I paused checking my Pip-boy, "on Squak Mountain!"

"No, but it'll probably have supplies of some sort, so shut it" he responded. I kept my mouth closed for the rest of the trip which took about ten minutes. We hid behind a low fence that snaked it's way along a path up to the outpost. The outpost was two stories, though the second story was much more just a raised are for the ranger to look over the forest. Two irradiated elk stood in front of the doorway to the first floor, where any supplies would be.

"Harold go up there and scare those elk off" Young said.

"Right sir" the young sounding man apparently named Harold said. He walked up to them shouting abuse at them, but for whatever reason they just glared him down as he walked up. One of the elf lowered it's antlers at it. He then walked up to it and placed his hands on it's antlers to try to push it out of the way. The moment his hands touched it's antlers the elk head butted him to the floor where it promptly brought it's large hooves down on his ribs with a sickening crack. He screamed like all hell. The elk were apparently startled because they scampered, just in time to, because from the opposite side of us several pairs of feet could be heard.

"Who's there!" a taunting voice said. "Did someone have a run in with the kanken? Oo you must be in SO much pain!" It continued.

They entered from the woods. There were five of them. They wore torn wind breakers except for one who wore dirt stained khaki's that had been cut off at the knees along with an unzipped leather jacket. He held two knives made from lawn mower blades. He'd painted a majority of his body with mud. He walked over to the dying security officer, and cut his throat. I winced and looked away. The painted man looked around as though he'd heard something. At this point the security team and I had made our way silently into a small ditch just below the fence.

The man painted with mud nodded to the corpse and one of the other raiders went to search it. The man painted with mud walked slowly over to the small fence pushing it over with one of his knives. Officer Young tensed up. The man came closer and closer until he was right on the edge of the ditch we were in. Officer young grabbed his right leg and pulled it out from under him then proceeding to shoot him five times in the groin. The man let out a loud scream, officer Young told his officers to open fire.

The battle didn't last long. After a minute it became clear that we couldn't win. Two of ours were dead, one wounded and captured. Aside from the one we'd already killed we'd taken out two. We'd ran a short distance the other way our retreat helped by a kanken as they were apparently called.

We sat down to make camp a fair ways off the road. On what appeared to be a scenic overlook. It was only Young and I. We sat there for sometime. We couldn't sleep not that we weren't tired. According to young we had to stay the first night up until day, that way our eyes would adjust to the light more better.

We'd managed to find a backpack left by a hiker who'd slipped and broken his neck before the war probably when a nearby radio reported that the world would be scorched. The pack contained a pack of cigarettes, some pork and beans and a pocket knife, along with a note. The note was something about a homeless influx into the woods.

It was a long time until it was deemed light enough for one of us to sleep. Young logically took first watch. When I woke up he'd fallen asleep, irresponsible probably, but I couldn't blame him. He'd been through a lot. I quickly looked through our stuff to be sure nothing had been taken. I was parched so I took a swig from my canteen. It was empty, a bullet had torn through it, apparently as we ran.

"I hate this place" I said throwing the canteen down the side of the scenic overlook. It made enough noise as to wake Officer Young. We sat there for sometime eating pork n' beans. It wasn't that it was bad, just slightly irradiated. I took a swig from a canteen which hadn't been shot. It was then shot out of my hands.

"Shit" I said stumbling to my feet and taking out my pocket knife. Officer Young drew his pistol.

"Do you think they followed us?" I asked.

"No" he replied. With that two people wearing rain ponchos walked out one holding a pistol, the other holding a rifle.

"You raiders?" One asked.

"No!" I yelled, "Do we look like raiders?"

"Well no, but-" He just sort of trailed off of that sentence.

"Just follow us." The other said.

We followed them around for another hour. This continued until we reached a small clearing with mobile homes around the edges of it. There tires appeared to have been well kept. There was a truck that had about twelve extra tires. I took several steps when I saw what pulled these trucks, it was two sets of two headed cows. I tried to occupy my mind by thinking about the biology of it, how two heads could cooperate. Or were there heads controlled by the same brain. That seemed more likely.

"Your friend seems distracted by the brahmin," one of the men said jokingly to Officer Young. We didn't walk much further. There was one quite long mobile home with two guards at the entrance, and one standing on top of it.

"Get in there" said one of the men. We walked up the steps to the mobile home.


	3. Little Romani

Chapter 3: Little Romani.

"Welcome to Little Romani, our little slice of heaven in these hellish wastes of ours." Said a tall thin older man. He wore a sleeveless t-shirt, a raincoat, ripped jeans and a beanie. He held a cigarette loosely in his left hand. He had a hunting rifle leaning against his chair. Lying at the bottom of his chair were three empty jet inhalers. Overall I'd describe him as... pitiful looking. It was at this point I realized that Officer Young had started talking to the man who was apparently in charge.

"A reverse pulse cleaner hm. Well you won't be able to find any in these woods, but I have a proposition for. You may have guessed by now, but the raiders that attacked you have been assaulting us for some time. We know where their village is, but the gate's closed to it, and any party we send to open it usually gets slaughtered. That is why we need your friend here," he gestured to me " To go in there, in disguise to open those gates." As if sensing my next question he finished with, "If you help us we will get you supplies and an escort out of these woods. So what do you say?" The last part didn't sound like a question. We didn't have a whole lot of decision room here.

"Sure, but how are you going to get her close enough without them shooting." Officer Young asked.

"She'll wear one of there windbreakers as a disguise. They won't think she's with them, but they'll bring her in." replied the leader. They took several more minutes to decide the details of the plan. We were offered bedding for the night. We expected, my last thoughts consisted of me trying to remember the names of the security officers that had died a day earlier. I could only remember Harold.

The next day I woke up with a pile of clothing next to me. I saw that they were a pair of patched jeans, a t-shirt, a red baseball cap, and a green windbreaker. A pistol was lying at the bottom of the pile with two clips of 10mm ammo. My Pipboy identified it as a chinese pistol. I quickly changed and stored the pistol in a pocket on the inside of the windbreaker. I hurried out of the door of the camper I was sleeping in.

Outside Officer young was talking to five of the Romani each carrying a hunting rifle and wearing various rain ponchos. Officer Young was no longer wearing his jumpsuit. He wore jeans, and a sleeveless shirt with a hoodie. I didn't feel like talking to him. Instead I went to get something to eat. There was a fairly large mobile home with some card tables set up outside of it, that seemed like a good place to start. I walked over to discover that it was there equivalent to the mess hall. Once over there I was given a shishkebab that had from the looks of it squirrel on it.

I was taking a sip from my last canteen when a young man dressed in a long sleeved collared shirt, with suspenders and khaki's.

"Hey I don't think I've seen you round here before now," he said.

"I haven't been round here much before." I replied.

"Well would you like the tour?" He asked.

"No thanks I'm not staying long" I replied.

"Why not?" he asked.

"I've got a job I've got to do." I said "that's all I can say."

"Y'all sound quite suspicious sayin' things like that" he said jokingly.

"My name's Mary" I said

"I'm Louis, but people round here call me Lou." He replied.

"Well it was nice Lou, but I've gotta go" I said standing up slowly, before walking away. I told Officer Young that I was leaving. I began a long walk to the outpost. When I arrived there were no kanken. Nor any of the raiders. I began walking to the entrance slowly. Might as well see what was in that barn. I lifted my pistol to the lock and pulled the trigger. The lock was broken, and the door slid easily open.

Inside the outpost was one bed one large crate and two boxes of food, plus some clothes and a rifle with eleven .357 bullets. My Pip-boy identified the rifle as a Cowboy Repeater. At this point I realized that my Pip-boy had a map function on it. It had already marked down Little Romani, Vault 47, The Scenic Overlook and The Outpost. It also had the shadow of a square over where the raider camp was.

I loaded as many of the bullets into the rifle, though this was difficult do to the age of the rifle. It didn't have a sling on it, so I'd be carrying it for sometime. There was a satchel which I filled with canned food before I left. I then proceeded to the upstairs. There was a radio sitting on a small table along with a lantern that had long since burnt out. From up there I could say the blood marks in the sand where the bodies had been. There was a packet of cigarettes sitting by the radio.

At this moment I heard a voice behind me say "Freeze." I put down my repeater and turned around. There was a man wearing a patched windbreaker. He held a double barreled shotgun.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I asked

"What do you mean? I see someone I don't know wearing one of our windbreakers I'm not just shooting first. I guess I'm just fucking curious." He said scowling before saying, "so who the hell are you?"

"I'm from the north, I was just walking round when I started getting shot at by those Romani fuckers." I said remembering the story I was told to tell. "The fuckers shootin' at me were shot by one ah you fellas. They told me to put this on so I'd be able to explain myself."

"What happened to them?" he asked.

"They got shot." I replied.

"Did they tell you there name?" he asked.

"No" I replied.

"Well...shit... what am I supposed to do with you?" he asked. I was about to respond when he said "fuck it the boss 'll figure somethin' out." With that we began walking to the camp.


End file.
